Marty's sitting next to me playing Oblivion, an X-Box game. He said
he thought he had played just about all the scenarios in the game,
but discovered thirteen or so more. He was happy about that.

A certain theme came on and I said "I like that." The art's
beautiful and the music, in that game. I've loved the music since
the NES Mario games, though, when it was all tinky and beepy.

Marty said he could tell me in just a minute who wrote it, and I
asked if he was at the end of the game. No, this game doesn't have
an ending, but there's a credits link, so we watched the credits and
talked about the people's names. American looking names. Maybe
German and other northern European, or maybe just Americans with
those kinds of names.

Down below is what we found, in just moments, along with pictures of
the twenty or so video games whose soundtracks he's done, and lots of
music on the site.

But I have two more stories first. A few years ago Dan Vilter, Kathy
"sofar8" [Kathy Ward] and I did a workshop at the
HSC conference in Sacramento. It was well received to standing-room
only, but was also reviled by a few hecklers and I felt pointed not
invited back fora couple of years (could've been my imagination, but
part of the objection and negativity was definite). When people
were coming into the room and leaving, we were playing music from
Final Fantasy (IX, I think), which Kirby owned on CD and sent along
with me.

When Holly and I were at the Traaseth's last week, Kelli had some
piano music for something from Final Fantasy or Halo... (Kelli, fill
in, please and could you post that YouTube link with the mood
lighting?

Jeremy Soule began life as a passionate composer of symphonic music
at a very early age. Since the age of five, Soule took an intense
interest in the symphony orchestra. “The Orchestra is the ultimate
instrument. I find that it has the ability to define nearly every
human emotion in existence” stated Soule from his Cascadian studio in
the Great Northwest of America.

Mastering the art of orchestration, melodic composition and emotional
context was no easy task for the British Academy Award winning
composer...

“Every day is a challenge. I am not able to take anything for
granted when it comes to music. Music is a literal language that is
a life study for me. I find that the natural inspiration behind
sound starts with the beauty of the human spirit. Everything in
music is a reflection of who we are in Creation. Composers draw from
the same sorts of places as other disciplines of the Arts in that we
are all connected to some greater cause and energy. Defining our
place in this energy is the beauty of our Art.”

That video games could be considered “Art” was unthinkable over 30
years ago during the debut of the first game machines such as the
Magnavox Odyssey. The sights and sounds of the mid-eighties machines
also did little to hint at the coming revolution. Today, video games
feature development budgets in the tens of millions of dollars and
often command some of the top talent in an ever-growing $20 billion
industry.

For over a decade, Soule has provided music for some of the most
successful and admired games of all time. Star Wars: Knights of the
Old Republic, Harry Potter, Total Annihilation, SOCOM: The Navy Seals
and the Elder Scrolls series can all attribute music to him. His
versatility as a composer has also been demonstrated from his
critically acclaimed traditional Asian score for Guild Wars Factions
to his work with children’s properties such as Rugrats and Lemony
Snicket and the Series of Unfortunate Events.

The year 2006 witnessed one of the best years yet for Soule with such
critical and commercial success coming from The Elder Scrolls IV:
Oblivion, Guild Wars: Factions/Nightfall, Prey and the World War II
epic Company of Heroes. Soule won the inaugural MTV Video Music
Award in August for “Best Score” and was honored with his third
career British Academy Award nomination in October. In November,
Soule won another “Best Score” award from Spike TV and was the
recipient of numerous press awards such as Game Daily’s “most iPod-
worthy score”.

In feature films, Soule’s Walden Logo was used at the start of the
$744 million earning film: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the
Witch and the Wardrobe. His work with Narnia also continued with
director Norman Stone’s critically acclaimed film C.S. Lewis: Beyond
Narnia.

In concerts, Soule’s music was a component of the successful “Play
Symphony” tour that featured prominently Elder Scrolls as well as
Prey as part of their concert program. Performances were conducted
with symphony orchestras in Vienna, Stockholm, Chicago, Philadelphia,
Detroit and Toronto. Future performances are scheduled in Stockholm,
Sydney and Singapore. Visit www.play-symphony.com for more
information. A special note to our readers...

“I love my fans—especially young composers. I encourage anyone
that wishes to contact me to write me here at this website. It may
take me a little while to reply to everyone but be assured that I
will respond.” –Jeremy Soule

Kelli Traaseth responded:

***When Holly and I were at the Traaseth's last week, Kelli had some
piano music for something from Final Fantasy or Halo... (Kelli, fill
in, please and could you post that YouTube link with the mood
lighting? )****
It's from Final Fantasy XI, To Zanarkand is the song, composed by Nobuo Uematsu. It is beautiful.

Here's the youtube with the version I'm trying to find music to, probably a lost cause though. I think this guy put some different arrangements together and added in some of his own. I've found a few different variations but not as good as his, (dang!) I'll keep working on it though.